Art of scudding hides



F. w. HENNING ART 0F SCUDDING HIDES Aug.A 29, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Feb. 4, 1948 INVENTOR.

Ilra.

ATTORNEYS.

Aug.l 29, 1950 F. w. HENNING 2,520,599

- ART oF scUDDING HIDEs Filed Feb. `41, 1948 f 5' sheets-sheet 2 J I. ZI

. .fk-l Ha I N V EN TOR. F'fEaEf/c K M( Hs/ww/VG.

ATTORNEYS.

Aug. 29, 1950 F. w. HENNING ART oF scUDDING HIDEs 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 FiledFeb. 4, 1948 A TTORN EYS.

Patented Aug. 29, 1950 ART F SCUDDING HIDES Fred W. Henning, Cincinnati,Ohio, assignor to The American Oak Leather Company, Cincinnati, =Ohio, acorporation of Ohio Application February 4, 1948, Serial No. 6,330

( Cl. "G9- 310) IClaims. 1

My invention relates to a machine for removing the scud from pieces ofhide prior to tanning.

After liming, the orinary procedure in a tanlnery is to unhair the hidesand then to remove the flesh therefrom (an operation ordinarily calledffieshingf). These operations are ordinarily carjried out on unhairingand fleshing machines.

Aside from manually throwing the hides into the machines and removingthem, the machines do the rwork of unhairing and eshing.

, As a step in the final treatment to prepare the hides for tanning, thehides are placed manuallyT vupon a rounded form called a beam, and an0perative called a beamer scrapes and presses down on the hide with asharp knife held obliquely so as not to cut the hide, and squeezes outl4the goo and lime deposit (called scud) from the grain side of the hide.

This operation is very tedious and laborious and always presents adifcult problem to secure operatives competent to do this work. It is anessential operation because an unbeamed and unkscudded hide will seldomhave a good color after the hide is tanned, and unless the scud iscaused to be exuded from the hide, proper tanning will not take place.

It has long been the aim of tanners to work out some mechanicalapparatus to do this very laborious and tedious task. A good beamer willbeam from 15 to 20 hides an hour. It is most painstaking Work for it notonly requires scraping of the grain surface of the hide but pressuremust be exerted on the hide to cause the scud to exude from it.

It is broadly the object of my invention to mechanically scud hides,thereby making unnecessarythe burdensome manual operation and at thesame time to improve the quality of the operation, so that after tanningthe hides will be more uniformly tanned and of good color.

The foregoing objects I accomplish by the .method hereinafter describedin which I have illustrated mechanism for the accomplishing of myobjectives.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cylindrical drum within which thescudding knives are mounted.

Figure 2 is a sectional View along the lines 2 2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional view along the line-S 3 3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail sectional view of one of the scuddingknives.

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view along the lines 5-5of Figure 3.

Broadly speaking, the principle of my method as proposed involves theplacing oi a group oi hides within a rotary drum, preferably with enoughliquid (which may be water) to keep the hides moist. A suicient numberof hides are placed in the drum so that the weight of several or morethicknesses of hides will cause the lowermost hides to be held down withsome pressure. I then cause the drum carrying the scudding knives on itsinner surface to move at a rapid rate underneath the hides, Thus Iutilize the principle of a rotating drum action in which the scuddingknives are mounted on the inside of the cylindrical wall of the drum.The rotation of the drum causes the lowermost hides to be held downenough by the weight of the stacked hides for the rotating knives toscrape over and cause the scud in the hides to eXude. The scud can bewashed away in Wash water which is permitted to ilow out of the drum.

Instead of holding the hides down with any clamping deviceand causingthe knives to press against the clamped surface, the hides are free toslip around so that fresh surfaces of hides are continuously moving toposition at the bottom of the stack. As far as I am advised scuddinghides from underneath where the weight of the successive layers is theonly force which causes con-V tact of the hide surface with the scuddingknives is broadly new..

In the apparatus illustrated, a cylindrical drum having a cylindricalwall l, has ends 2. lIhe drum may be rotated by a belt 3, driven from apulley 4 on a countershaft 5. The countershaft 5 has a driving pulley 6engaged by a belt 1 from the pulley 8 of an electric motor 9. The drumhas hub members li! and journals H, which rotate in bearings l2 suitablymounted on machine frame members I3, which must be sufciently sturdy tosupport the drum and its operating parts.

A pipe I4 and valve I5 is arranged so that it will control the flow ofwater into the drum, if water is required. So that it will be possibleto discharge wash water containing scud the end walls of the drum areprovided with discharge openings i6 which may, as illustrated in Figurel, be set in radially a short distance from the inner periphery of thedrum, as indicated at l1 in Figures 1 and 2. The openings shown are inthe heads.

I have found that from two to six inches of water or other liquid may berun into the drum during the operation and I may drain this liquid 3 outduring the operation. The presence of the liquid does not appear to beessential to successful scudding as long as the hides are sufficientlyslippery to slide around and provide constantly changing underneathsurfaces.

There are preferably two sets of scud knives, those which extendlengthwise across the drum and those which are mounted in a radialarrangement at the ends of the drum.

rIhe particular drum illustrated, and Which has a capacity of from 35 to45 beef hides, has an inside diameter of about seven feet. The knives i8arranged on the inside of the cylindrical Wall are parallel with theaxis of the drum and are spaced about eight inches apart. The drum maybe rotated at about eighteen revolutions per minute, so that the speedof the knives as carried around is about six feet per second.

The ends of the drum are also provided with scudding knives i9. Theseknives extend from the inner surface of the cylindrical wall in an axialarrangement like the spokes of a wheel. Preferably the knives I9 aremounted in a conical arrangement as illustrated in Figure 2, and may asshown be spaced between the knives I8.

A charging opening 2.0 is provided in the cylindrical walland a closure2| is secured to the outer Wall of the cylinder with swivel clamps 22.

The knives are blunt ended steel bars with sharp corners which scrapeover and squeeze the underneath surfaces of the hides, causing the scudto be exuded.

Ordinarily for a charge of 35 to 45 beef hides, the water level ismaintained at from two to ten inches in depth. If Water is run in anddrained out continuously, the higher the water level is maintained thegreater the waterpressure will become and the more wash water will bedischarged. It is comparatively simple -by controlling the valve l tomaintain a desired level ofl water within the drum, if the scuddingoperation is carried out in the presence of water.

ByV an operation of about ten minutes,V the hides will .be found to bebright and clean, and obviously more successfully scudded than by theold laborious method of hand scudding. Y

It will be noted that the wall of the drum where the closure 2i `ispositioned, aswell as a section of the nwall diametrically opposite doesnot have scudding knives (see Figure 3). This space on each side of thedrum causes a sort of tumbling pocket which appears` helpful inconstantly causing the hides to move one relative to another, so thatconstantly changing underneath surfaces are emosed to the scuddingaction of the knives.

Ya closure therefor, and scudding knives arranged in spaced positionaround the inner surface of the cylindrical Wall of the drum, andscudding knives also arranged extending from the axes of the heads alongthe inner surfaces of the heads of Vthe drum in radially spaced positionto the outer circumferences of said heads.

2. A leather scudding machine comprising a substantially cylindricaldrum rotatable on a substantially horizontal axis, said drum having amain opening in tne cylindrical Wall of the drum with a closuretherefor, and scudding knives arranged in spaced position around theinner surface of the cylindrical Wall of the drum, scudding knives alsoarranged extending from the axes of the heads along the inner surfacesof the heads of the drum in radially spaced position to the voutercircumferences of said heads, and liquid discharge openings in the drumWalls.

3. A leather scudding machine comprising a substantially cylindricaldrum rotatable on a substantially horizontal axis, said'drum having amain opening in the cylindrical wall of the drum with a closuretherefor, and scudding knives arranged in spaced position around theinner surface of the cylindrical wall of the drum, scudding knives alsoarranged extending from the axes of the heads along the inner surfacesof the heads of the drum in radially spaced position to the outercircumference of said heads, liquid discharge openings in the drum wallsand means for continuously supplying liquid to the interior of said drumduring the rotation thereof.

4. A machine for treating pieces of hide prior to tanning whichcomprises a cylindrical rotary drum having spaced scudding knivessecured to the inner walls of the drum and extending parallel to theaxis of the drum, said drum having an opening in its cylindrical Wallfor charging the drum with a plurality of hides and withY a closure forthe opening and radially spaced scudding knives arranged in concaveconical formations on the inside of the heads of the drums.

5. A machine for treating pieces of hide prior to tanning whichcomprises a cylindrical rotary drum having spaced scudding knivessecured to the inner walls of the drum and extending parallel to theaxis cf the drum, means for supplying a hide softening iluid to theinterior of the drum and means for draining out the fluid at a ratewhich maintains a sufficient volume within the drum to keep the hidessubstantially emersed therein, said drum having an opening in itscylindrical Wall for charging the drum with a plurality of hides andwith a closure for the opening ,and radially spaced scudding knivesarranged in concave conical formations on the 'inside of the heads ofthe drum, and tumbling areas arranged within the drum walls into whichareas the scudding knives do not extend.

FRED W. HENNING..

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Y 4,570 Welty June 13, 184639,824 Mereness Sept. 8, 1863 157,149 Branaugh Nov. 24, 1874 1,085,068Swanson Jan. 20, 1914 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country p Date 84,860Switzerland Apr. 16, 1919

